Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Western patients are increasingly traveling to developing countries for health care and developing countries are increasingly offering their skills and facilities to paying foreign customers. This international trade in medical services has huge economic potential for developing countries and serious implications for health care across the globe. The potential is explored in this book through analysis of the market for medical tourism and identification of its link to economic growth. The authors propose that medical tourism is not a universally feasible growth strategy. Instead, it is successful only in countries with economic and political advantages that enable them to navigate around international and domestic obstacles to trade in medical services. It is also suggested that a successful medical tourism industry, when coupled with cooperation between the private and public sectors, may lead to public health improvements in developing countries.